ARCHITECTURAL FICTION: August 2012

Friday, 31 August 2012

Friday, 24 August 2012

Winters, E. (2007) Politics and the Situationist International

The reading looked at how political and moral considerations infiltrate the concept of architecture. How is the pattern of life mapped onto and into buildings and artifacts even though they aren't something that one can actually see?
Many intellectual developments in humanity has been largely influenced by the French - Structuralism is a french product which was largely exported to the world.
Our essence is exists in our freedom and our freedom to choose: an animal behaves the way it does according to its dna, to an unwritten but understood language that was written in its most basic genetic material. Man however, is born free and he can exercise that freedom in choosing the life he leads. Animal and man both have their genetic material determined by nature, but man's life however, is on a different stature. It is therefore a problem for man as to HOW he lives, but not for the animal.
Satre's disdain for the bourgeois is based on the assumption that its members haven't committed themselves to live in a certain way, they've just passively accepted to life of numbing servitude. They collude in supporting a set of artificial values which remove from their own consciousness any obligation to think and act for themselves: basically an army of zombies meeting the 9-5 grind because that's what they've been told is normal and right and socially acceptable.
The Situationist International wanted to transform the everyday life. "Derive":instead of working, walk the streets in search of the unknown. Engaging and being absorbed into. Social encounters with strangers is encouraged. Encountering the unfamiliar is key to this.
"Detournament":Designed to replace art.
VIRTUAL SELF - largely agrees with this idea, to make daily life exciting and stimulating, it helps people with the same interests or values interact, bringing people closer that may not have had that chance before. Not only will people want to roam the streets again in search for these social interactions, it'll help create safer communities.

Manaugh, G. (2007) Architectural weaponry: an interview with Mark Wigley

New Babylon encouraged one to step out of the norm to create a new conversation/dialect not only with ideas, or with people but also with the built environment.
A playground is a space of free movement. But its freedom is really only perceived - you are limited to what activities are done, and you are constantly monitored.
The concept of New Babylon - designed as a BIG playground for everyone, no body works, everyone is free to use this space however they feel. What the architect designed as a place for exchange of love ala 60's peace love ecstacy paradise, he also envisioned not so many years later it being a place of bloodshed. The human spirit is just drawn that way, we are dark miserable creatures. Without constraints and struggles, we would all just kill each other. There would be 'freedom' as such, but not freedom in its essence - which reflects alot back to the concept of man from the last reading. We, as man, are singled out from the rest of nature, by our ability to choose.
Mark wigley quoted:
George Bataille: "Architecture, no matter what it is, in any form, is a prison".
Gordon Matta-Clarke: an an example of Liberation with regards to the 'utopian' mobile home..."you're only free to go anywhere you want in so far as you never leace the US highway network"
Enrique Walker: "we as architects build constraints, we don't build freedoms: we build reductions of freedoms".

The aim of our project will be to try to give people the feeling of freedom at the very least. Like the above quotes, once you build something, you are building less freedom and more constraint, no matter what angle you look at it...so we have tried to propose a building that limits the number of constraints and maximises freedom.

Sunday, 19 August 2012

WEEK 3 | READING

Brand, S. (1997) Shearing Layers

A building consists of several layers - 1 SHELL 2 SERVICES 3 SCENERY 4 FURNITURE.
1 & 2 don't change all that regularly whilst 3 & 4 have a more frequent turn around.
DEGW (Architectural Firm) like to build long-term relationships with their client, so how the building responds over time plays a very important role in the design process. If they overlook 1 & 2 in these stages, then the building will not perform very well over time, meaning that expenditure increases and flexibility decreases.
Revised layers by the author:1 SITE 2 STRUCTURE 3 SKIN 4 SERVICES 5 SPACE PLAN 6 STUFF
Having adaptive space saves time and money. If you embed services in structure, it may seem the cheap alternative at first, but means that is a hassle to replace services (which happen every 7-15 years).
The dynamics of the system will be dominated by the slow components: the rapid components simply follow along - a comparison to nature slow (trees in nature; 1, 2 & [to a degree] 3 in buildings) therefore the slow components constrain the quick, and they also control the quick.
"While all buildings change over time, only some improve" (Christopher Alexander). Adaptability is what makes buildings come to be loved.

Zelfde, J. V. (2012) "The aspatial city."

The city is no longer a city in space but a city in time; another city being added to the city we live and work in by social media (4square, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc) - we are becoming more and more connected virtually and although we may not see someone physically in years, because we have kept in contact with them through social media, when we do see that person physically again, its like no time has passed.

Saturday, 18 August 2012

WEEK 3 | TUTORIAL ACTIVITIES

WEEK 2 | READING

Barton, H. (2000) - Urban Form and Locality

This reading covered the dispersal of concentration looking at the extreme of (hamlets & villages) and the other extreme of (dominant city ie a city region with surrounding urban areas - can turn into urban sprawl), where and how commerce and industry is located, low vs. high density and shape (nucleated vs. linear).
It introduced the argument that most people want to live in a rural setting (because its indicated in the price of such real estate) because of the perceived benefits of self-sufficiency and low impact, but would be happy to live both self-sufficiently and with little impact in urban areas too.
As in Whiteway, Gloucestershire - a community built to be self-sufficient in the early 1900's, households gave in to societal norms and most have 2 cars now as friction of distance was not high enough to maintain the intended level of impact.
It has been found that households in dense areas opt not to have cars whilst in dispersed areas - even the poorest families had at least 1 car because the public transport system was not of a high quality to support the commute to work, retail, food etc. When located close to high quality train services, car use is drastically reduced. Cars are endless money sponges, and by living in a dispersed area, it increases the burden of money for a family/household of lower socioeconomic status. Not only is there the benefit of reduced emissions for compact cities, but there are social, environmental and economic benefits too.
I feel like the reading supported the idea of removing the car from the city - mixed use, a supportive public transport network and proper planning mean that people living in and close to urban areas can rely on walking/public transport to get to and from different destinations.

Fackler, M. (2011) - Tsunami Warnings, Written in Stone
Basically, we should learn from the past! The rebuilding of Brisbane after the floods hasn't taken into account the possibility of it happening again. It will happen again, and people will be massively devastated again - much like the people of Japan who ignored the symbols left by their ancestors. The areas that were hit the worst were areas of low socioeconomic status, a huge burden for households already struggling with money, let alone with the financial burden caused by a flood, which then places the burden onto local, state and federal government to give aid to people to help rebuild. We should look back at history to learn from mistakes.